Lavinia Goodell: Wisconsin's First Woman Lawyer

The first woman lawyer admitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court had to fight for that status, overcoming opposition from the most powerful legal figure in the state. Lavinia Goodell (1839-1880) was also one of the first female trial lawyers in the United States, a nationally-respected writer, a Vice President of the Association for the Advancement of Woman, a candidate for Janesville City Attorney, a successful lobbyist, a jail reformer, and a temperance advocate. Yet she is undeservedly obscure. Another woman’s likeness adorns her spot in books, on the web, and at the Rock County Courthouse. Lavinia Goodell: The Private Life and Public Trials of Wisconsin’s First Woman Lawyer aims to secure her rightful place in history.

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“What a splendid woman Charlotte Bronte was!”

Lavinia Goodell, March 18, 1863

Lavinia Goodell lived 150 years ago, but some topics being discussed in today’s press would be familiar to her. A case in point is a recent New York times article about a poetry anthology titled “Book of Rhymes” that was written by the author Charlotte Bronte when she was 13 years old.

Charlotte Bronte

Bronte wrote the poems on tiny scraps of paper and stitched them together.
Continue Reading “What a splendid woman Charlotte Bronte was!”

“First principles were never more important.”
William Goodell, January 1866

During Black History Month, it is worthwhile examining some of the writings of Lavinia Goodell’s father, Reverend William Goodell, a lifelong abolitionist.

Rev. William Goodell

During the Civil War years, William Goodell was the publisher of The Principia, an anti-slavery newspaper. Lavinia assisted in all aspects of the publication process from writing articles to preparing the papers for mailing to serving as editor-in-chief in her father’s absence. By 1865,…
Continue Reading ‘First principles were never more important.’

Lavinia Goodell, December 1874

In December 1874, six months after her admission to practice law, Lavinia Goodell kept busy not only running her law office but also speaking to temperance groups. Several days before Christmas, Lavinia wrote to her sister saying that the previous week she had accepted an invitation to lecture at Whitewater, Wisconsin. She said, “I was considerably alarmed at the prospect but concluded to accept. I shall have to learn to speak if I am going…
Continue Reading I felt ‘set up’ by my success

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Lavinia Goodell, October 1879

In the fall of 1879, Lavinia Goodell wrote an article for the Woman’s Journal titled “How it Looked to a Lawyer Half a Century Ago.” In it, she lauded the progress women had made during her lifetime (Lavinia was born in 1839) in gaining more rights.

Lavinia noted that in 1837, Timothy Walker, a professor at the Law Department of Cincinnati College delivered a course of lectures on American Law that were published in book…
Continue Reading ‘Married women today are not the abject slaves they were fifty years ago’

Welcome to the Lavinia Goodell State Law Library
On September 30, 2024, the Wisconsin State Law Library, located in the Risser Justice Center just off the Capitol square in Madison, Wisconsin, was named in honor of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer.

As Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley noted in her remarks at the naming ceremony, Lavinia cherished libraries.  In 1867, when Lavinia was living in Brooklyn, New York, her older sister, Maria Frost, was preparing to…
Continue Reading Welcome to the Lavinia Goodell State Law Library

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“It is real fun to be a lawyer.”
Lavinia Goodell, August 21, 1874

The early days  of Lavinia Goodell’s legal practice were busy ones.  After being admitted to practice law on June 17, 1874, she was eager to get to work and was willing to take on any clients who wanted to hire her. Lavinia’s diary entries and letters make clear that she was throwing herself into her practice with great enthusiasm and she truly enjoyed being a lawyer.
Continue Reading ‘It is real fun to be a lawyer’

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When Lavinia Goodell was admitted to practice law in 1874, she paved the way for other Wisconsin women to follow her into the profession, and follow they did.  The next two women to take up the practice were Lavinia’s Janesville cohorts Kate Kane – in 1878 – and Angie King – in 1879.  Other Wisconsin women soon joined them.

The Wisconsin State Law Library has developed a digital timeline of women who shaped Wisconsin’s legal landscape.  The timeline may…
Continue Reading Wisconsin State Law Library Launches Digital Timeline of Women Lawyers

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Join Wisconsin’s legal community in celebrating 150 years of women in the law. Here are four ways that you, your law firm, or local legal community can recognize the significant contributions women have made to Wisconsin’s legal history.

Governor Proclaims June 17 as Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lavinia Goodell becoming Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer, Gov. Tony Evers has proclaimed June 17, 2024, as Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day.

The proclamation praises Goodell for pioneering…
Continue Reading Making History: Four Ways to Celebrate 150 Years of Women in the Law

Governor Proclaims June 17, 2024 Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lavinia Goodell becoming Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer, Governor Tony Evers has proclaimed June 17, 2024, Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day.

The proclamation praises Lavinia Goodell for pioneering a path for women in the legal profession across the state and for facing the many obstacles thrown in her path with unwavering resilience. It recognizes the lasting impact of women lawyers on the fabric of the…
Continue Reading Governor Proclaims June 17, 2024, Wisconsin Women Lawyers Day

“Little by little, but all the time, we are gaining essential rights.”
Woman’s Journal, March 1877

March 8 is Women’s History Day. By happy coincidence, March 8 is also the anniversary of the day that Wisconsin’s governor signed into law legislation drafted by Lavinia Goodell allowing women to practice law in the state.

After Lavinia’s petition to be allowed to practice before the Wisconsin Supreme Court was denied in early 1876 (read more about that here), Lavinia drafted…
Continue Reading ‘Little by little, but all the time, we are gaining essential rights.’

“There is no substantial reason why women should be denied the privilege of the ballot”
Lavinia Goodell, February 1874

February 1874 was a busy month for Lavinia Goodell. She studied law for hours nearly every day, in anticipation of taking a bar exam that would enable her to officially become a lawyer and begin practicing. She attended Ladies Temperance Union meetings and drafted a petition calling for the repeal of liquor sales in the State of Wisconsin, which she…
Continue Reading ‘There is no substantial reason why women should be denied the privilege of the ballot’

“I should like to be admitted next summer.”
Lavinia Goodell, December 1873

In January of 1874, exactly 150 years ago, Lavinia Goodell was in the final stages of her law studies and was beginning to plan how and when she would be admitted to practice law. Shortly before Christmas 1873, she wrote to her sister Maria, “I am studying Greenleaf’s evidence. It is very interesting, and I wish I hadn’t anything else to do but just go ahead on…
Continue Reading ‘I should like to be admitted next summer’

“He paid me $5.00 – my first fee here.”
Lavinia Goodell, December 17, 1879

As 1879 drew to a close, Lavinia Goodell found herself depressed and in ill-health. Her move to Madison (read more here) had not gone as planned. On Wednesday, December 17 Lavinia wrote a 12-page letter to her cousin Sarah Thomas in which she poured out her frustrations.

Lavinia did have one piece of good news. She had won her first case in Madison. “One…
Continue Reading ‘He paid me $5.00 – my first fee here.’

“I have been the bluest and lonesomest dog you ever saw.”
Lavinia Goodell, November 20, 1879

November 1879 was not a happy time for Lavinia Goodell. After eight years in Janesville, Wisconsin, she rather abruptly made the decision to move to Madison, Wisconsin’s capitol city, and set up her law practice there. She arrived in Madison by train on Saturday, November 15. On the 20th she wrote a long letter to her cousin Sarah Thomas in which she laid…
Continue Reading ‘I have been the bluest and lonesomest dog you ever saw’

Lavinia Goodell, October 1879

In the fall of 1879, shortly before she moved to Madison and a few months before ill health forced her to stop practicing law, Lavinia Goodell wrote a number of articles for the Woman’s Journal countering pieces that had appeared in the Christian Union newspaper admonishing women to defer to their husbands. Read more here.

The October 4, 1879 Woman’s Journal contained one of Lavinia’s pieces titled “Submission, or Equality.” Lavinia began by quoting…
Continue Reading ‘The woman who always submits wrongs the community.’

“I love old maids!”
Lavinia Goodell, December 1861

William Goodell’s anti-slavery newspaper, the Principia, was published every on Saturday. The first six and a half pages of the December 28, 1861 issue were filled with Civil War news and abolitionists’ hopes for an end to the conflict and freedom for the enslaved. But the “Family Miscellany” section that occupied the last page and a half of the paper offered readers lighter fare, including a piece written by twenty-two year…
Continue Reading ‘I love old maids!’